In the post--World War II era, Louisiana's coastal wetlands underwent an industrial transformation that placed the region at the center of America's energy-producing corridor. By the twenty-first century the Louisiana Gulf Coast supplied nearly one-third of America's oil and gas, accounted for half of the country's refining capacity, and contributed billions of dollars to the U.S. economy. Today, thousands of miles of pipelines and related infrastructure link the state's coast to oil and gas consumers nationwide. During the course of this historic development, however, the dredging of...

Through a wide range of demographic, economic, social, and environmental data, A Louisiana Coastal Atlas shows cartographically how the inherent resilience of coastal communities manifests itself over time. By illustrating the adaptability of residents to their environment and economy, this resource shows how historical processes can inform planners to more effectively respond to and recover form future ecological events.

Through the innovative perspective of environment and culture, Urmi Engineer Willoughby examines yellow fever in New Orleans from 1796 to 1905. Linking local epidemics to the city's place in the Atlantic world, Yellow Fever, Race, and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans analyzes how incidences of and responses to the disease grew out of an environment shaped by sugar production, slavery, and urban development.

Willoughby argues that transnational processes--including patterns of migration, industrialization, and imperialism--contributed to ecological changes that...

Environmental disasters--including hurricanes, floods, oil spills, disease, and disappearing wetlands--trouble the Gulf South, an area of the United States that includes Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The contributors to Environmental Disaster in the Gulf South explore the threat, frequency, and management of this region's disasters from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Scholars from the fields of history, sociology, and anthropology examine the underlying causes of vulnerability to natural hazards in the coastal states while also suggesting ways to...